Practically no one in the West doubts the murder of once-rising reform politician Boris Nemtsov was the work of Vladimir Putin, and/or his allies in government. If Putin didn’t give the direct order, the pundits say, the Russian leader created the "atmosphere of hatred" directed at the Russian opposition, of which Nemtsov was a half-forgotten yet still active leader. This obviates the need for evidence, while giving the accusers ample room to back off if and when facts to the contrary are uncovered – evidence which can then be easily discounted, because, after all, everyone knows a real investigation is impossible in Putin’s Russia. Thus freed of the facts, our new Cold Warriors can elaborate their conspiracy theories without fear of contradiction.

Funny how political murders in the US – the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther
King – are invariably the work of a “lone nut,” but in Russia it’s always
the Putin government. When Dr. David Kelly, a prominent weapons expert and critic
of the evidence Whitehall had publicized to justify the Iraq war, committed
"suicide"
just as he was about to reveal how the British government had doctored up its
brief, there were suspicions but these were dismissed as a "conspiracy
theory." An entirely different standard is applied to Russia, and yet,
aside from Anglo-American exceptionalism, perhaps there are some good reasons
for this. Russia, after all, is a country where contract killings were once
a staple of doing business: where gangsterism is widespread, and oligarchs,
gorging on the riches of "privatized" companies, are in deadly competition
for spoils in a system where government, and not the market, rules.

Boris Nemtsov, a reformer who rose to prominence in the chaos of post-Soviet Russia, made a lot of enemies along the way. That he met his end on a bridge a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, murdered in cold blood by a hit man, shocked the country and the world only because everyone thought the days when Russia resembled the Wild West were over. Vladimir Putin, we all thought, had ushered in an era of stability if not justice. Yet even Putin’s enemies, with some alarm, are now throwing doubt on the West’s conventional wisdom.

Speaking of the murder, Irina Khakamada, who co-founded with Nemtsov the opposition Solidarity Party, while blaming "the climate of intimidation," also warned that "the murder could herald a dangerous destabilization," according to Talking Points Memo. "It’s a provocation that is clearly not in Putin’s interests, it’s aimed at rocking the situation."

This, ironically, is the same line being taken by the Russian authorities, who listed a series of motives for the crime, number one being that the murder was a "provocation" designed to destabilize the Russian state and that Nemtsov was a “sacrificial victim for those who do not shun any method for achieving their political goals."

Putin eerily predicted this possibility in a comment made three years ago when he suggested that his enemies were not above murdering a prominent opposition figure so they could blame it on him.

The truth is likely a bit more prosaic.

Nemtsov’s enemies were legion: aside from Putin and his supporters, there are the more extreme nationalists who think Putin is a sell-out. Nemtsov’s open support for the Ukrainian government against his own country generated the kind of hatred antiwar activists had to endure during the Vietnam war: think Jane Fonda upon her return from Hanoi. Perhaps a bit more lethal are the oligarchs threatened by Nemtsov’s reform program – a series of "anti-corruption" measures ultimately aborted by his mentor, Boris Yeltsin.

Nemtsov was once a popular figure, whose charismatic style and apparent willingness to speak truth to power endeared him to reform-minded people in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Lifted up to the highest levels of power by Yeltsin, Nemtsov praised Yeltsin as a "good tsar," a peerless leader who could practically do no wrong. Yeltsin, he rhapsodized, "is a true Russian czar, with all the pluses and minuses, with all his recklessness and sprees, his decisiveness and his courage, and the odd time with his bashfulness." Read in retrospect, Nemtsov’s panegyrics are an embarrassment, especially in the Russia of today which remembers "Tsar" Yeltsin’s reign as a time of despoiling thievery, decline, and despair:

"Unlike the ‘bad’ Russian tsars, Yeltsin is a ‘good’ Russian tsar and a completely forgiving person. For all that, his physique plays a role: he is such an enormous peasant, and from the Urals.

"Naturally, all kinds of intrigues wind around him, and many people try to get something for themselves out of their closeness to him. But he is an unselfish person, of that I am certain."

Those intrigues winding around Yeltsin were the cause of Nemtsov’s ultimate political downfall. The problem for Nemtsov was that his "good tsar" was a plaything in the hands of a group of oligarchs, who backed and financed Yeltsin’s regime as long as they could loot the country. Dubious no-bid "privatization" schemes handed over vast tracks of Russian industry to people who were no more than petty criminals: these gangsters rose to prominence amid the ruins of the Soviet Union, often employing Chechen criminals to strong-arm their competitors. Boris Berezovsky is perhaps the emblematic figure of this tribe, and together the oligarchs pooled their resources to seize effective control of the Russian state, doling out the goodies among themselves. But these thieves soon set to quarreling over the spoils, and after Yeltsin won a second term as President with their invaluable help, Nemstov, along with Anatoly Chubais, decided it was time to change the rules of the game.

There would be no more rigged auctions of state property, no more insider deals, no more looting. The Russian people, who had been promised capitalist prosperity, had instead gotten "shock therapy" and the sight of fat-assed kleptocrats with political connections gorging on the "reforms" while ordinary people starved. The Chubais-Nemtsov initiative started a civil war amongst the oligarchs, with Beresovsky and his allies arrayed against the reformists – who, it turned out, were just as corrupt as their opponents.

Put on the defensive, Beresovsky’s allies in the media publicized a sweetheart
deal wherein Chubais and his allies enriched themselves while their favored
oligarchs got sweet deals from the government. The horribly flawed "privatization"
programs championed by Nemtsov, instead of leading to a free market, had instead
created
a system of nearly unparalleled corruption. As Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames
pointed
out in The
Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia, Nemtsov’s "anti-corruption"
decree "provided the legal basis for significantly expanding the scope
of the insider dealing it was supposed to be eliminating."

Nemtsov had hoped that Yeltsin would anoint him as his successor – a possibility Rep. Jim Leach’s congressional report on money-laundering in Russia pointed to with alarm – but instead the drunken tsar, who was by that time the most hated man in Russia, turned to Putin as the only man who could save the country from complete chaos. Nemtsov, associated with the corrupt Yeltsin years, faded into the background, no longer lionized even by the liberal opposition – until now.

So, we return to the question at the head of this column: Who killed Boris
Nemtsov? The answer is: we don’t know, at least not at this point, and one can
only marvel at the investigative prowess of talking heads who "solved"
this crime from a distance of several thousand miles, hours after it occurred.
Nemtsov’s many enemies include the oligarchs he allied himself with, and then
later turned on, who were no doubt eager to exact their revenge. Beresovky,
who met his own mysterious death years earlier, was one of his biggest enemies.
Once in collusion, the rapacious oligarch and the would-be reformer fell out
in the "war of the bankers" that preceded the end of the Yeltsin era:
it
was Beresovsky who had Nemtsov fired from his
job as economic advisor to Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko.

It is ridiculous to assume Nemtsov was killed by the Putin regime: indeed, as the co-founder of Nemtsov’s Solidarity party noted above, the Russian leader is among those with the most to lose from this incident. Yet that is the narrative being written by the Western media, one that suits their newfound cold warrior mentality. Absurdly depicting Russia as falling back into authoritarianism comparable to the Stalin era, these worthies are pushing for regime change in the Kremlin.

The fact of the matter is that Russia today, for all its faults, has never been freer: it has gone from the era of the gulag, when millions were murdered by the Soviets and many more imprisoned, to a country that is at least half-free, with elections as open as Chicago’s and a "mainstream" media which, if it’s controlled by pro-government oligarchs, is no more monochromatic ideologically than our own.

Yet the mythology built up around Nemtsov and his death will certainly eclipse the truth, at least here in the West – where "narrative" trumps truth in every instance. His martyrdom will be used by the new cold warriors to whip up anti-Russian hysteria, relations with Moscow will turn even colder, and Ukraine will continue to be the site of a proxy war between Washington and the Kremlin. This new anti-Russian crusade is, indeed, the most dangerous recent development in the War Party’s strategic vision, for it unites both left and right in a campaign to extend US/EU hegemony from the Azores to the Urals.

Putin is no angel, but if you want to see devils just look at his probable
successors – no, not the Putinists, none of whom have the stature to measure
up to the original, but the outright fascists and ultra-nationalists who will
take full advantage of Washington’s open hostility. Add to this the fact that
Russia, while nowhere near the power it once was, yet retains its nuclear arsenal,
and you have all the makings of a global calamity in progress.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here.
But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often
made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

Great essay! Could the killers of this man and the killers of the so called prosecutor in Argentina be part of the same people who think they can kill anyone al over the world if it suits their purpose. They would seem to be the people who love to muddy the waters with false flags?

In Argentina it backfired miserably as the Argentine secret services are being purged from Zionists. Lets hope it happens in Russia and God's willing, although its difficult with traitors in high places, in the US

I think Nemtsov was killed by a pimp of the so-called "model" he was "dating" at the time of the murder. They had some kind of business disagreement about payment for the "service". The pimp didn't know he was killing somebody famous whose killing would generate headlines. Or maybe he did know, but didn't care. This was an ordinary crime that just happened to involve a politician. The woman knows more than she's letting on, and she just wants to get the he** out of Russia. I don't believe she was part of a conspiracy to set Nemtsov up for the killing, but she knows why he was killed by whom – because it was over her.

American hypocrisy is once again starkly displayed. Pundits and politicians are "condemning" the murder – everywhere you turn, they are "condemning strongly" or "condemning sternly" or "condemning resolutely". They are insisting on a "full, open and transparent" investigation. Perhaps given their apparent gullibility, the Warren Commission might serve as a yardstick. Mind you, they're not "condemning" the forty people burned alive in the Odessa Trade Union Building. Or the 35,000 civilians killed by the carpet bombing of Misurata and Sirte. Or the twelve year old black child gunned down by police in a public park. Or the 'black site' torture and interrogation facility discovered in Homan Square. None of those atrocities have been transparently investigated yet. But when a gangland murder "silenced the voice of the opposition" – representing the 4.5% of the electorate who supported him – well, darn it, that merits "condemnation". The pundits fail to point out that among the 60,000 or so marching on Sunday, thousands were carrying the 'Red White and Blue', indicating that they are Russian Nationalists, and probably stand in solidarity with Putin. If there were freedom in America, and the courage to defend it, a crowd that large might be permitted to gather in Washington, DC to demand "full, open and transparent" investigations. Perhaps we should start by demanding indictment of the still living perpetrators of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Nemtsov was a relic…living on borrowed support from abroad and, as one commentator pointed out, this democratic liberal 'activist' and his fellow parasites could not win one single seat in the Duma…some threat!

Thankyou for a fine essay and a very apt comparison of the American Oligarchy's 'free' media treatment of the case for the political murders in the US by "lone nuts" of some of the most promising figures in America while portraying the bathic end of a venal creature who was only a threat to himself…as being orchestrated by the most powerful man in Russia…

I am watching season three of Netflix's 'House of Cards'…here they have a very ham-fisted, one-dimensional treatment of President Putin thinly disguised as Victor Petrov…The Zionist media is attacking Putin and Russia from every angle imaginable…and then some. Let us never forget who these animals are…who they serve.,.and who the banking interests are that despoiled Russia once and are trying to carve it up like a rump roast, today…

Russia came to the aid of the United States of America when the British Empire though the offices of its trained apes–the French–were trying to return the Western Hemisphere to rule by the Eurotrash–the bankers and the "No-ability" of the Continent…invading Mexico and supporting the Confederacy so as to weaken and destroy the free world as it existed in the 19th century–that world that was not yet under the complete dominion of the System of Usury championed by the bankers in London and their henchmen throughout the world. Today, we are again on the verge of being overrun and destroyed by the same malevolent forces that our forefathers had banished and resisted. The same US that was saved by Russia is now trying to subvert and destroy it in the name of a New World Order owned and operated by the progeny of the same animals who tried to destroy her time and time again.

Shades of Malaysian Flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine last July. That also was quickly blamed on Putin with no evidence. It was more likely Kiev was trying to shoot Putin's plane down but hit the wrong one. Notice how that's not even brought up anymore. This is another situation where killing an opposition leader would be all downside for Putin if he had ordered it. When the killer(s) are found and turn out to be opponents of Putin, as Justin said, the jingoistic Western press will never believe them anyway. The Dogs of War are ready to go into overdrive.

Ron F is closer to the truth than anyone else in these posts; given the lack of information at this time. How many times must this drama be played out before "we" get the point. (Lessee; was it David and Bathsheba?) To the other posts on this subject, some advice from Charley Chan; "when there are too many fish in the flower shop; even the flowers smell like fish.")

I quote: " and one can only marvel at the investigative prowess of talking heads who "solved" this crime from a distance of several thousand miles, hours after it occurred". Amen! The anti-Putinistas are out in full force. Yet there is an interesting aspect to this ridiculous tempest in a teapot. Thus far the Obama administration has been quite mute at least publicly. Perhaps because Russia is one of the negotiators with Iran? You do not want Netanyahu and Putin sniping at you at the same time.

Just some interesting tidbits not readily mentioned but of interest.
1) Notice no blood stains at the scene of the crime? R/T reportings, only shows a body in a black plastic bag, however one obscure site shows the body uncovered showing no blood stains on body or pavement. Body shown is of a unfit pot bellied man. This does not fit Boris Nemtsov physic .
Could it be the same folks who pulled off " Paris Charlie Hebdo shooting of the policeman at the side walk? No blood again.
2) His Ukraine girl friend aged 23 he 55 and she aborted his child.

The Tsar dispatched the Russian Atlantic and Pacific fleets to New York and San Francisco respectively with instructions to aid the Union if she were attacked by the British and French. On May 5, 1862 the French were defeated by Mexican patriots and the enemies of mankind were deprived of a quick victory and the chance to move north to aid the Confederacy.

Other aspects that led to the war were the 'sons and heirs' of the Tory dogs who remained in the US working–as they did in 1812–to increase friction between the North and South…We have the financiers of John Brown and 'Bloody Kansas'…the tariff issue and questions of railroad routes…everything to divide and promote disunion…In the South there were the 'Knights of the Golden Circle' which promoted the idea of a Slave Empire encircling the Caribbean…the Secretary of Treasury of the CSA would be a Rothschild agent and Confederate bonds would be bought by the authors of the invasion of Mexico. The bankers, meanwhile, did their level best to destroy the Union and eventually–whatever else we can say about Abe Lincoln–he issued Greenbacks and beat them and their foreign allies…and, even as a Southerner, I am glad that he did.

One more tidbit: he was well enough known –in certain circles — to be featured on an episode with Anthony Bourdain, which aired I believe on CNN. On the other hand, the political party he represented couldn't even get a seat in the Duma. Politically speaking he didn't even make the Kathy Griffin D-list.

No, that is not interesting. What is interesting is that your first four words are totally inconsistent with the rest of sentence one. Of course you imply something and it would be more honest if you told us what that is.

If it isn't, then it is the most extraordinary coincidence. One day before coming out with "evidence" against the President of Argentina in the case of purportedly Iranian involvement — he gets killed. He was washed up entity with no support in public, very similar to Nemtsov. If there is anyone who needs to worry in Russia — as well as in other countries — is the "non-governmental" crowd. The more this mindless accusations blanket Western media — and none of it is hidden from Russian public — the more will average Russian be angry at the lying West. Ukraine is not in Africa, but on their doorstep. Ukrainians speak Russian and millions of people in both countries are connected to each other and share the view of the events. This is the main reason Russian position on Ukraine is approved by vast majority of people. But the anger with the west is rising as well. Recently, bloggers that urge Russian government to fulfill Western beliefs, and act accordingly. If Russians are already aggressors, occupiers and not worthy of the superior beings company, then it is time to actually demonstrate Russia's Asian face — and fly thousands of sorties over Ukraine the way NATO "civilized" Libya. After Ukrainian military forces are neutralized, occupy the country — since that is what Russia is according to the West doing anyway. Others say that Putin is more popular then Jesus, even though Putin cannot walk on water. There are 70% Christians but 86% support for Putin and his government. It is not true that only pro-Government media is allowed in Russia. Mainstream media, like Komersant, or Moscow Times, and many others parrot neocon version of reality today omnipresent in the West. But a great deal of media in Russia publish or show on TV everything that is being said in the West. Jen Psaki is a regular on Russian TV. In fact, the bizarre theories about Russia, bizarre press announcement of spokespeople and politicians are THE ROOT of growing realization that West has never been their friend or partner. This time, it is not the Government that needs to do convincing. It is our own shockingly inaccurate and vicious campaign against Russia that has become the revelation not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg but all over the land.
Neocons do have a weakness for exaggeration — and they have definitely at OUR expense got themselves into Ukrainian deep mud. Neocons have simple formula — Trotskyite permanent chaos and revolution along with Strauss admiration of imperial structural advantages, allows them to send carpetbaggers into anarchy-ridden devastated lands. Starting with bankers. The words shame or respect mean absolutely nothing to them. But they are infecting our populace with this line of thinking, infused with humor to help the evil better go down.

Thanks, Prinz; I checked my old history book, and whatta you know, that history was omitted, as was Andersonville. Sherman's march thru Ga. was, of course, covered in great detail. Some of that march, and his proof that "war is hell" was very true. My Great Grandmother described it in great detail as "When the Yankees came". Grab the pigs, cattle, horses and all you can carry, and head for the hills! (Scarlett O'Hara had the proper remedy hidden under her green dress; BANG).

Putin would certainly have to be an idiot to have ordered Nemtsov's murder but his conduct in Ukraine suggests that he is indeed an idiot. Either he, the oligarch's he fronts for or even his US neocon supporters could very easily have panicked at the idea of a significant opposition figure who was about to make a speech on the mess Putin and aforementioned friends have got Russia into. He's stuck with a ridiculous-looking "sausage" of land, occupied by highly expensive contractors' mercenaries, which he cannot enlarge without breaking the ceasefire. He has no land access to Crimea, least of all the vital Kharkov – Sebastopol railway line and, once again, he can't change that without breaking the ceasefire. In addition, the Russian economy is in a mess and even when the sanctions are lifted, the international business community is unlikely ever to trust Putin again. It is thus easy to see how Putin or someone in his "camp" might have panicked. It is equally possible that it is the first "shot" in the "Putin must go" camapign. Clearly, Putin's departure from the presidency is an esential condition for Russia to return to its place as a normal European country. That cuts both ways. Putin & Co could have panicked or the oligarchs or neocons could be trying to ditch him. If it was a blunder by Putinor his friends, there will be no more murders. If it was attempt to dislodge Putin, the series will continue.

how likely is it that Putin would have anything to do with this when he's got all of Russia behind him ?
I just hope this murder was not part of the of a bigger plot that's been set in motion; like the killing of Massoud before 911, in order to preempt his actions after the event.

Let us hope that this clumsy murder was not a first step in trying to provide a legend for some group preparing to strike at President Putin. Human garbage in the US Intelligence community have already called for his assassination. Obama has said that he is "very good at killing people." The shooting down of the Malaysian airliner has been described as perhaps a 'mistake' in that they mistook it for Putin's plane.

As we have learned from earlier attacks on Tsarist Russia…the enemy of mankind always strike at the leadership…a popular tsar…a talented reforming minister…a tsar who leans toward the French Empire rather than the City banks….

In the case of America, it was presidents who challenged the power of the Usurers…Lincoln… Kennedy…

Putin has challenged the primacy of the Dollar System…he has poured skat on the bankers' plans in the Middle East and Ukraine…They have every reason to want him dead and plenty of scum to make the attempt…

Written with the certainty and conviction that only an anonymous Internet post can provide.

You may be correct but you cite no actual evidence. True, the girlfriend is much younger and quite attractive, but how do you know she had an angry pimp? Killing the boyfriend is not a good method of collection. So there's that.

What amazes me is how Ron F claims to know facts not in evidence. Yes, a decent theory but what not say so. She might also just be an innocent almost victim of the drive by shooting.

And sadly- but understandably- Joe the Plumber in Smalltown, USA, doesn't know who Nemstov was or what he represented or why he was killed or by whom… and Joe doesn't care. It's not something that affects him or anyone he knows and it doesn't affect the next appearance by one of the Kardashian sisters on TV, so Nemtsov's death- as final as it was for him- barely registers as the beginning of one pixel of a blip on Joe's "what's going on" radar.

If Nemtsov was truly a "half-forgotten leader", then it makes you wonder why he was being interviewed on CNN by Anthony Bourdain in 2014. Why would CNN continue to refer to him as "opposition leader"?

Does that make one think he was a designated replacement should there by a coup against Putin (engineered in part by the US)?

If this were the case, then Putin would have a motive to kill him. I do not know if he would. The reason they aren't rioting in the streets afterwards might be that the US supporters of Nemtsov overestimated his popularity. The Rula Lenska of Russia just wasn't so celebrated there as in our advertisements for him? Not much of a regime change coup.

Yes, another shoe could drop and be attributed to Putin. Then Joe the Plumber really would care as he attempts to defend his loved ones from an evil terrorist. Wonder why they needed Chechens to do the Boston thing, which occurred while Putin was standing fast with Assad and the US was arming ISIS. Perhaps a Chechen has been designated to whack Putin, and we'll all believe it because we know how evil those terrorists are. Then the Russians will be confused about the source of their attacker.

One heritage from the Soviet era is that Soviet leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev had relatively pampered lives but did not try to enrich themselves. That was destroyed by the Yeltsin revolt. Most Russians were disgusted by the rapacity of the Yeltsin brood. Ruthlessly pursuing them has anchored Putin in Russia. Any attempt of a coup against him will bring huge numbers of Russians into the streets. Obama's chances of regime change in Russia are zero. That is not my wish. It is my analysis.

I know a few Russians and they all had the same reaction basically: "WHO?"

The West are obviously all over it as a ploy to denigrate Putin/destabilize Russia.
Funny how Khordo and 'protestors' already had the slogans for the memorial march printed out within a 24 hr period! http://fortruss.blogspot.ca/2015/03/were-props-an…

Now a battalion's being sent to Ukraine to train the nazis to keep the war in Ukraine going..

Our (USA) government and media complex are acting in absence of severe consequences.. and they are making some truly horrible decisions

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].